Scarlets beat Edinburgh in Magners League

SCARLETS will go into their crucial Heineken Cup match this weekend against Leicester with a raised confidence level after an impressive win over Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday to retain their second position in the Magners League.

SCARLETS will go into their crucial Heineken Cup match this weekend against Leicester with a raised confidence level after an impressive win over Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday to retain their second position in the Magners League.

The victory at a snow-surrounded Murrayfield was the Scarlets’ first victory in the Scottish capital since 2003 and the region’s sixth win in their last seven matches.

“ This is the first time I’ve ever won up here either as a player or a coach,” said Scarlets head coach, Nigel Davies, adding : “If we were going to win up here then it was going to be this year because we’ve got momentum. We’re eager to stay in the top four of the Magners League

“We’ve been very pleased with the way things have gone this season. We’re progressing.

“There’s a group of players we’ve developed over the past 18 months and they’re really coming to the fore for us. People like Rhys Priestland, Ben Morgan, Lou Reed.

“Virtually the whole squad really.

“We have got some experience as well, but the guys making the difference are the younger group” stated Davies.

Priestland again impressed with his control at 10 and, with his place kicking, the fly-half scoring 11 points with the boot to hoist his total this season to 126 points.

The four league points gained on Saturday brings Scarlets’ total to 40 in the Magners League, but that could and should have been one more.

The five-point margin between the two teams hugely flattered Edinburgh, who for much of the match were on the back foot against a Scarlets side that played by far the better attacking rugby.

“ We were a bit inaccurate at times. There were probably three tries that went begging. We were disappointed with that, but at the end of the day this is a place where we’ve never won before. The result was huge” added Davies.

His namesake Jon Davies was very much the key player in Scarlets backline and was rightly named man of the match, after engineering Scarlets first try and then scoring the second.

“Jon started the season in superb form, but got injured. He’s a special player. He’s got power and pace and showed what he is capable of against Edinburgh. We’ve got a very exciting backline and capable of scoring tries” observed the Scarlets’ coach.

If the backline worked well it was because of Scarlets’ dominance up front.

“What we focused on today was the contact area and how we work without the ball,” said Davies.

“That’s going to be key to us if we want to score tries. Where we get caught short sometimes is in the physicality but today we were right up there. I was very pleased , too, with our scrum.

We’ve got Simon Gardiner on the tighthead. He’s only 20 and he’s done a great job. And our lineout was the platform we were able to play off.”

Scarlets’ scrummaging power and technique told at the beginning of the second half after Priestland had put the ball out on the full at the kick-off.

The visitors’ eight disrupted the Edinburgh scrum and from their possession moved the ball left for Davies to scorch through a gap before sending full-back Morgan Stoddart in for the game’s first try.

Stoddart’s score atoned for the full-back’s failure to score in the first half after Regan King had ghosted through the Edinburgh defence.

His pass bounced off Edinburgh centre John Houston and as the ball bounced towards the line it required a cricketer’s eye to bring it to hand but unluckily it just bounced awkwardly for Stoddart.

Earlier Scarlets came close to scoring when Richie Pugh, making an impressive first start this season on the flank, fly hacked the ball towards the Edinburgh line, only to lose out in a foot race to Chris Paterson.

The threats continued in the second half with Davies again the chief tormentor, first with a grubber kick that all but produced a score and then with a solo effort that gave Scarlets their second try.

Edinburgh responded with a touchdown from Paterson to earn the home side a fortunate bonus point, but, although the gap was reduced to five points, Edinburgh never looked liked snowing on Scarlets’ parade.